Faith
by Unknown-Wisdom
Summary: Slightly AU; one sided A/H, Eternity Code spoilers ^.^ songfic to 'Unwell' by Matchbox Twenty, about Holly's wandering mind and Artemis's annoyed one...


Faith

**AN: **Got bored, love Arty…yep, that's about it .

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Artemis Fowl; unfortunately for me Eoin Colfer is responsible for his creation. Nor do I own the song 'Unwell' by Matchbox Twenty.

**Warnings:** None really, one-sided A/H. Eternity Code spoilers.

"_All day  
Staring at the ceiling  
Making friends with shadows on my wall  
All night  
Hearing voices telling me  
That I should get some sleep  
Because tomorrow might be good for something_

_Hold on  
I'm feeling like I'm headed for a  
Breakdown  
I don't know why..."_

Faith. A truly amazing concept in Foaly's opinion, one of the few things every living being had in common. A rare feeling that didn't need to be shielded in order to remain invisible.

In his pondering the centaur brought up an ordinary online dictionary on his lower view screen. Typing the five-letter word in he waited for a microsecond for the result.

''Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. A belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.''

Interesting. An accurate description he supposed. So maybe that was what Captain Short was suffering from.

An unacknowledged case of faith.

The theory was one of his better ones, for all the emotion elf's showed on a regular basis, the LEPrecon officer seemed content on never showing anything that could be classified as basic elfin emotion, aside from the occasional show of annoyance or sarcasm, of course.

Things had changed.

Well that went without saying really, but he wasn't talking about the Lower Elements. The rumours that the four-legged genius had a soft spot for the LEP's only female officer were not unfounded. Foaly found that Holy short was one of the few people in this underworld that could hope to understand him. A younger sibling understanding perhaps?

Oh dear, the years were indeed making him soft weren't they. He shook his head.

The auburn haired fairy was walking a _very_ thin line. And for all he was worth (which in his mind was quite a bit) Foaly hoped that she didn't lose her balance.

"_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell  
I know, right now you can't tell  
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see  
A different side of me  
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired  
I know, right now you don't care  
But soon enough you're gonna think of me  
And how I used to be  
Me…"_

Holly Short had her head in her hands.

"_You're right, of course. We could never have been friends. It was circumstance that pushed us together, nothing more."_

Nothing more. The words wouldn't stop echoing inside her head.

The shuttle's nose dipped slightly, reminding her that she couldn't rely on the autopilot forever. The off duty leprechaun straightened up, gazing over the sensors briefly she retook control, levelling the shuttle out again. The docking bay was less than ten minutes away. She sent an alert to Terra's main station, just in case they forgot she was coming.

It was a bad idea. Not just bad either. It was down right stupid.

"_Will you miss him?"_

"_Miss who?"_

It was the only thing she could think of to do. Nothing else had worked. Extra shifts, extra shooting practise, extra arguments with Foaly. She barely had time to sleep anymore, but it wouldn't go away.

The feeling seemed to grow bigger the more she ignored it. The feeling had made its home in her stomach and would bubble up occasionally to make sure she knew it wasn't going away until she did something about it.

But what could she do? She had carried out the procedure herself. There was no way to find him again. There wasn't any hope to draw strength from.

"_Talking to myself in public  
Dodging glances on the train  
I know  
I know they've all been talking 'bout me  
I can hear them whisper  
And it makes me think there must be something wrong  
With me  
Out of all the hours thinking  
Somehow  
I've lost my mind..."_

Commander Julius Root chewed the end of his cigar. From his place, feet resting on his desk as he leant back in his chair, he read the report. From what he had gathered so far, the long and short of it was…that there was nothing to report.

Strange. Or was it?

The clean up of the Lower Elements was almost finished. Gangs were being flushed out again, various territorial issues were being cleared up, and there was, of course, the literal clear up in downtown Haven.

He sighed, red face becoming more of a pinkish shade.

He was worried about it…her…well the whole situation really…not that there really was one at the moment. He had no doubt, however, that his best officer was digging herself a very early grave. Her performance recently had been, well, under par. It was a concentration thing, so Foaly had been all too happy to explain, the problem was that her mind was somewhere else.

Root had automatically assumed that his meaning was that Holly was tired, in need of a holiday, time off, to recuperate. It had been a tough few months…well, years really. He voiced this, and was replied with a simple knowing smile.

He hated those.

Nevertheless, he had immediately sent the order for Holly to receive as much time as she needed to fully recover. Which he hoped wasn't too long.

When Short had heard she had simply, well, left. Stopping only briefly to say thank you before commandeering the nearest shuttle and leaving for Terra, leaving Root with only one small mental concern. A concern about where in the world Tara was, and who lived close by.

"_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell  
I know, right now you can't tell  
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see  
A different side of me  
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired  
I know, right now you don't care  
But soon enough you're gonna think of me  
And how I used to be  
Me..."_

Holly looked down for the first time since taking to the night sky. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. It didn't matter how many times you looked down on the Earth from this height, it would always leave you gasping for air.

Humans had marked even Ireland's wide-open moors. This really was their era. But, Holly assured herself, not for the first time, it couldn't last forever.

Fowl manor was but a shadow on the nearing horizon, a large shadow certainly, but a shadow nonetheless and the hazel eyed eighty year old realized that she couldn't turn back now, in spite of every coherent thought telling her that this was the stupidest thing she had ever done, and that includes the time she got herself trapped in a chute with a fresh flare on the way.

She would see him, even if he couldn't see her. Just one more time.

_"I've been talking in my sleep  
Pretty soon they'll come to get me  
Yeah, they're taking me away..."_

Artemis Fowl the Second couldn't sleep. It wasn't the first attack of insomnia he'd suffered recently. It was one of many, as a matter of fact.

He'd made his way down the large oak staircase in the central wing down to the ground floor. Walking quietly so as not to disturb anyone, as sounds did tend to echo about the manor and any noise always seemed so much louder in the early hours of the morning, he made his way to his father's study.

The familiar scenery never failed to put the teenage criminal mastermind in a relaxed state. Tall floor to ceiling bookcases lined the walls, leaving room only for a marble furnished fireplace. The centre of the floor was strangely empty, as though many tables had once occupied it, Artemis didn't dwell on it, probably nothing more than a childhood memory.

Taking a copy of Agatha Christie's 'Death on the Nile' from one of the lower book shelves he moved towards the fire place, a small flame still flickering at the base, and sat down on one of the two dark leather chairs. His reasoning being that if the blatantly obvious plot lines in the book wouldn't get him to sleep again, nothing would.

The return of his father had been an interesting one, to say the least. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. And that was another annoyance that had decided to arise into his day-to-day life.

Feelings, intuition, Artemis Fowl did not rely on feelings to solve puzzles nor did he use intuition to answer complicated questions. His mind was the best weapon against the outside world that he had, so why was it failing him?

Strange technologies were forever appearing out of nowhere. From contact lenses to gold coins with a hole in the centre. It was beginning to get on his nerves. Hiding criminal activity from the law wasn't half as difficult as hiding it from his father. The last thing he needed was another problem to occupy his time. A criminal genius can only do so much at once.

Slim fingers peeled back the books front cover.

And as if that wasn't aggravating enough, why was he now suffering for paranoia? His piercing blue eyes glared out of the window to his right. He felt as though someone was constantly watching him.

"_I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell  
I know, right now you can't tell  
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see  
A different side of me  
I'm not crazy I'm just a little impaired  
I know, right now you don't care  
But soon enough you're gonna think of me  
And how I used to be..."_

Holly ducked automatically, taking a sharp intake of breath from her helmet's filtered air supply. She knew she was shielded; she glanced downwards for a second, just to make sure.

There was no way he could have seen her. Was there?

No. No, that was impossible. Holly hovered back up, his head was down again, and it looked as though he was reading something. Manipulating her helmets visual display she zoomed in slightly, she could make out soft lines creasing his pale forehead as he concentrated on the text before him.

A small smile graced her dark features. Some things would never change.

Her stomach started to churn, how could she let herself be so close, her hand moved towards the glass, but so far?

Unknown to both parties, both Artemis and Holly sighed at the same time.

There were plenty of clues she reasoned after a moment. It wouldn't take him long, she thought; no matter how many precautions they took. Foaly had said himself after all, could the Lower Elements ever really be safe from Artemis Fowl?

No, the LEP officer realised. She had faith in him.

"_Hey, how I used to be  
How I used to be, yeah  
Well I'm just a little unwell  
How I used to be  
How I used to be..."_

Well there you have it, as much as I loved the third books ending, I kinda hated it at the same time. But at least there'll be another one, so I'm ok for now.

I hope you liked it, and it was my overall aim to make Artemis as un-OOC as possible, because I've read quite a few fics in this section and can't help but notice that they tend to turn him into a bit of a wimp. No offence . So I hope I achieved that as best I could anyway.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
